Chapter 14

Eggs as Dog Food

I am constantly amazed by people who buy expensive poor quality pet foods for their animals, when there are cheap highly nutritious foods available.

Nothing illustrates this point more than the humble egg.  Eggs are dirt cheap, but they are absolutely brilliant nutrition for your dog.

• They are one of the cheapest sources of high quality protein and essential fatty acids you can buy.  Egs are a whole food.  They contain all the nutrients required for the growth of a new chicken.  Not only that, eggs are always available, and they come completely unprocessed…raw.

The egg is regarded as having the perfect protein. It is the one against which all other proteins are measured.  It contains a (mostly in the yolk), all the vitamins except vitamin C and a range of high quality saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, the longevity factors always present in raw foods.  If you cruch up the shell, and throw that in, it is a futher source of calcium.

This is incredible nutrition.  You can pick up a dozen of these for a couple of dollars.  A totally natural totally unprocessed food.

Egg Whites

Most peaple I speak to about eggs are mortally afraid of the egg white.  They have ‘’heard’’ the ‘’you should not give raw egg whites to dogs, because it is harmful.’’  They are often not sure where they heard this advice, and they have absolutely no idea of HOW egg whites will harm their dog.

Before I explain the half truths contained in these ideas, let me say, that for countless generations both wild and domestic dogs have consumed egg whites, RAW, along with the yolks when robbing birds’ nests and stealing eggs.  This has caused no problems.  No harm whatsoever has occured.  My dogs regularly receive whole raw eggs as part of a balanced natural diet.  No problems.  Just the opposite.  Brillant health.

So what is all the fuss about?

• Firstly they contain an ENZYME INHIBITOR which can make them difficult to digest for a very young puppy, or a sick or old dog, or a dog which has problems with it’s pancreas.  Apart from that, unless a dog has an allergy to eggs, there should be no problem.
• The second problem is that egg whites contain a subtance called AVIDIN,which bings with the vitamin biotin (a member of the B complex), making it unavailable for your dog.  The only situation where this has been a problem was when an experimental diet, totally deficient in biotin was fed together with lots of raw eggs whites for several weeks.

The only likely possibility I know of where lots of egg whites could precipitate a biotin deficiency, would be where a dog was fed a poor quality dried dog food.  If that dry food was low in biotin, as they often are, the dog may suffer a biotin deficiency.

Another reason for confidence is that egg yolks contain plenty of biotin, so that feeding whole eggs is very safe.  For example, egg flips… made from whole eggs and milk have been a favourite invalid food for generations causing health, not a biotin deficiency.

• We know a fox.  He loves RAW eggs.  Probably gets one nearly every day… and guess what… no biotin deficiency.

So forget it … the whole idea of RAW eggs being dangerous as part of a balanced diet is absurd.

If you are having a problem with the whites, you can cook them.  That eliminates both problems.  However, do no xook the yolks, continue to feed them raw.

In other words ,unless you know your dog cannot tolerate egg whites, go ahead and feed whole raw eggs as PART of your adult healthy dog’s natural balanced diet.

How do You Use Eggs to Feed Dogs?

The simplest way to think of eggs is as a BRILLIANT PROTEIN supplement, and when you use it… you get the added bonus of all those other nutrients, such as vitamin A, the B vitamins, and most particularly the calcium and the essential fatty acids, the iron and the zinc and the enzymes and other longevity factors always present in whole raw foods.  Note that because it is a whole unprocessed food it gives your dog more nutrients than we are aware of.  This is as opposed to processed ‘’scientifically balanced’’ foods.  The so called ‘’complete’’ dog foods.  All you get with these is problems.  Anyway, back to using eggs.

• Let me repeat that whenever you want to add protein to a dish for your dog, one of the best things you can add is an egg.  One of the great things about eggs is that they are liquid.  This makes them se easy to combine with other foods.

In our household, they are commonly added to a vegetable dish to boost the protein content, or to milk.  Our dogs love them!  Often we whisk in some brewer’s yeast.  Alternatively, we just give them the whole egg.

Think of Protein – Think of Eggs

It is their ability to provide high quality protein at a cheap price which makes eggs such a wonderful food.  There are times in a dog’s life when extra protein is absolutely essential.  For example, eggs are brillant food for nursing mothers, growing puppies, pregnant mums and for older dogs where you wish to provide good quality protein in small amounts.

Egg yolks are an essential food for a dog with skin problems.  They contain sulphur containing amino acids, biotin, vitamin A, essential fatty acids and zinc.

• The bottom line is, when you need to supply high quality protein that is rich in many other nutrients… at a cheap price, think of eggs.